Laursen Could Be One Of The Greats

According to the Sun today, Martin O'Neill looks set to name Martin Laursen Villa's new captain.

Not really rocket science I don't think, especially as Laursen was captain against Odense in the intertwobob the other day.

The paper also says that 'transfer rebel Gareth Barry is closer to the Villa Park exit door.' Is he? Not seen any reports saying we've lowered our price or that Liverpool have increased their bid?!

Anyway, they go on to quote Martin O'Neill about the 31-year former AC Milan defender: 'He is in the John Terry mould, isn't he? And he has become such a talismanic figure for the club. He never lets you down. 'There's a few people in contention for the captaincy. Nigel Reo-Coker did a very good job at West Ham and Stiliyan Petrov has done it for Bulgaria. But in Denmark it could not have been anyone else other than Martin ? and he did an excellent job.'

Martin O'Neill takes this further on the official site saying Laursen could become the modern day Paul McGrath aka God, for Villa. Hey, steady on!

'What he's trying to do at this stage - 30 years of age and almost 31 - is improve. His heart's massively big, to get over the injury like he did. That would have sidelined the majority of people.' Adding, 'If Martin Laursen said I can't do anything today but I will do my own work it's not a problem. But he does every single week for us and he's a bit like Paul McGrath in that sense, you just let him get on with it. To become an iconic figure at a football club you have to be there for a number of years performing brilliantly, so let's hope so. It's not a bad comparison if you're going to compare Laursen to Paul McGrath because he was one of the greats.'

One of the greats indeed.

In our recent poll Laursen got 60% of the votes to be the new captain: Click Here

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.